We’ve come a long way from the early days of pencil and paper sketching in the design process. Smart software has allowed designers to create more accurate sketches with greater efficiency. Traditional CAD programs have clearly made things easier for users, but for too long, there wasn’t much coming from developers to disrupt sketch software. In the fast-moving world of technology, it seemed like CAD users were getting left behind. Designers had pain points that weren’t being addressed, so the team at Siemens NX set out to find a better way. They wanted to remove constraints, make software simpler to use, and decrease the overall learning curve. Where do you start when you’re reimagining software that hasn’t budged since the 1980s, and how do you solve the usability issues that designers are facing? Today’s guests are Jeff Shagena and Mike Yoder from the product engineering team on NX Design Software. Mike is a 23-year veteran here at Siemens and he’s currently responsible for NX Product Management. Jeff has been with us for 3 years now, starting as an intern and eventually taking on the role of Product Manager for small and medium businesses at NX Software. In this episode, Jeff and Mike will talk about the concepts that shaped the new NX Sketch software, and how it works to remove constraints for users. They’ll also talk about what makes the new sketcher stand out from other CAD software on the market, and how it drastically increases designer productivity.  Some Questions I Ask: Why is Sketch such an important part of the design process? (1:38)How has sketching changed over the years? (4:02)How did NX change things across the industry? (7:13)What role does artificial intelligence play in this new software? (13:39)What’s up next for sketch technology? (28:55)How do you make the upgrade process easy for customers? (30:59) What You’ll Learn in this Episode: How the solver simplifies the user experience (8:59)What NX set out to solve for designers (10:11)How NX increases productivity (14:33)How the benefits of the software trickle down (18:36)Recent software changes users can expect (19:48) Connect with Jeff Shagena: LinkedIn Connect with Mike Yoder: Email: [email protected] Connect with Jennifer Piper:  LinkedIn See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.